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When Seraphine Bastin stepped onto Devlin Court at Charles Koch Arena during her official visit, she sensed a special moment was upon her.

After spending her early years in Dinant, Belgium, she decided to turn down offers from Kentucky, Wake Forest and Butler to compete for Wichita State
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Seven games into the Shockers' season, Bastin has been the starting point guard in every contest and has embraced her role as Wichita State's floor general.

Adams was persistent in convincing Bastin to commit to the Shockers, FaceTiming her twice a week during the recruiting period. In those conversations, the coaching staff was able to see if the 5-foot-8-inch point guard would fit into their on-court system in addition to easily blending with the team off the court. After those digital meetings, Adams knew that Bastin was who she wanted to run her team's offense for the 2018-19 season.

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Shocks are down 21-27 at the half to Tenn Tech in what at best could be described as a very uninspired effort. Defense wasn't bad except the last play of the half. You know you offense is struggling when you leading scorer has 3 points.

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This by far was the hardest game of the Shocks to watch. My impression so far, through eight games, is the offense is too stagnant, no ball movement to shift the defense. Lack of boxing out, rebounding and unnecessary turnovers are a killer. Line up definitely needs to be tightened up. Hopefully these areas will improve before conference play.

For the most part I can't argue with that. The Shocks finally showed a little life for a 3:00 minute stretch beginning at about the 6;00 minute mark of the 4th quarter where a 12-0 run narrowed the deficit from 48-31 to 48-43 with 2;53 but that was it for the Shocks other than a meaningless layup with 8 seconds left.

The Shocks may have set an arena record for missed layups and bunnies in the 1st hal

Both teams had 26 turnovers. So it was a very ugly game.

Hard to say where this team goes from here but they are somehow going to have to figure out how to run something resembling an offense and learn how to value possessions. 26 turnovers to 7 assists is not a winning formula. Also this team generally won't win any games come down to free throw shooting.

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#2 UConn (soon to be #1) went into South Bend, Indiana to day and whacked the soon to be formerly #1 Notre Dame 89-71. UConn had 5 players in double figures led by 28 points from 5-11 freshman guard Chrystan Williams out of Little Rock, Arkansas. Congrats to the Huskies.

If the Lady Shocks play like they did today when UConn shows up at Koch Arena on February 26th the Huskies might win by triple-digits.

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This by far was the hardest game of the Shocks to watch. My impression so far, through eight games, is the offense is too stagnant, no ball movement to shift the defense. Lack of boxing out, rebounding and unnecessary turnovers are a killer. Line up definitely needs to be tightened up. Hopefully these areas will improve before conference play.

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On the Coach's radio show last night Coach Ewa sat if for HCKA who was out recruiting but HCKA did call in for a few minutes. Steve Strain says that he likes to try his best to put a positive spin on things (and that is a fact) but that was tough to do on Sunday against Tennessee Tech.

Coach Ewa was a bit more direct saying it was the team's worst performance so far this year that they she hoped it would be the worst performance of the year because they hope that won't be repeated.

When HCKA called in she said that she thinks they need to bet back to working on fundamentals with this group and they need to figure out out to get some offensive rhythm going for this team.

Clearly it is hard to get an offensive rhythm when you are missing easy, close in shots at a high rate and you are turning the ball over at a very high rate. As New2Wu points out the offense is stagnant. Way too little ball and player movement and way too much one-on-one and forcing plays that are simply not there.

I think this team plays surprisingly well on the defensive end for such a young team with the exception of their defensive rebounding which needs work. But until they learn to play as a unit on offense and take care of the ball they will continue to struggle to score and that defensive effort will be wasted as often as not.

Apparently this did not even draw a whistle and wasn't even mentioned on the broadcast. I guess Women's Basketball has enough problems and can't afford to have this kind of stuff getting attention. And apparently this was only one of several incidents by this Notre Dame player in the game.

Only thing missing were the roller skates. Looks like Notre Dame had 2 jammers score on that play. Notre Dame's Ogunbowale is not an All-American blocker for nothing.

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Short-handed Shockers: Jaida, Jada, Dawnyel, Maya, and Asia were not on the bench. No reason given in the game write-up and the post-game show is not up on the site yet. Illness or discipline one would assume.

Creighton sank a program-record eighteen treys. Of their 62 FGA for the game, 41 were from behind the arc.

Down eleven at the half, the Shockers came storming back on their zone trap (they got two 10-second violations) and the shooting of Shyia (7-10 including a three-ball for 17) and Alyssia (6 -8 including three treys for 15 points) in the third quarter to take a brief one-point lead with the quarter ending in a tie.

The Jays were beginning to throw the ball over the top of the press, so the Shockers had to drop it for most of the fourth quarter. Creighton got hot again, the Shockers cooled off some, and the game got away.

On the concourse at halftime, I saw a Creighton fan with a shirt that said, "Let it fly."

Upon re-reading this: those numbers for Shyia and Alyssia were for the game, not the third quarter.

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Was not able to attend the game nor follow it in any way. Those are very good numbers for Alyssia and Shyia. Hopefully, that will flip the switch for them.

As flyingMoose points out Creighton's 3-point barrage determined the outcome. Creighton was 29-62 from the field but their 18-41 from behind the arc gave them an effective FG% of 61.3%, The Shocks were 29-60 from the field including 6-15 from behind the arc which is very good for them but that doesn't quite measure up at an effective FG% of 53.3%.

Both teams made 7 free throws but CU was 7-9 while the Shocks continue to struggle needing 16 attempts to drop 7 (43.8%). Raven in particular continues to struggle hitting only 3-7 which puts her at 40.6% for the year which is not good since she gets to the line far more than any other Shocker. Raven looks pretty good when she hits her free throws but she simply has difficulty repeating her stroke from the line.

Other than the 3-point shooting advantage for CU this game was pretty even statistically.

While the Shocks had the 5 no-shows for whatever reason I see that they did have Cesaria back for the first time this year and she surprisingly was able to go 21 minutes. She did not score a lot hitting 2 of 3 including a trey for 5 points but she did have 3 assists and only 1 turnover. In fact, the Shockers as a team had 15 assists to only 13 turnovers which I'm sure is there best numbers in a game this year.

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Just started to watch the replay on Yurview.com. Shane and Denning reporting that Jaida Hampton, Jada Peacock, Dawnyel Lair, Maya Brewer and Ashley Reid were suspended for this game due to a violation of team rules. No details of the violations were provided.

The Shocks had 10 players suited up. Asia was suited up but did not play and Natalia is apparently redshirting. That left Sabrina, Cesaria (for the first time this year), Raven, Seraphine, Carla, Alyssia, Shyia and Trajata to carry the load.

Hard to say how long the 5 violators will be in the hoosegow. Maybe more will be said about that during the course of the game replay.

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Finished watching the replay. Nothing more said about the 5 suspended Shocker players other than maybe this game will get their attention. IMHO this was not a step back for the Lady Shockers today. I think the 7 players who played today (Trajata only played 4 minutes -- this was not a game that fit her or Asia) probably have established themselves as the core of this team from hear on out. It will be interesting to see if Shyia and Alyssia can build on today's career best performances for the freshman and sophomore. Sabrina had a bit of a rough start shooting 1 of 5 in the first half with her only basket coming with 4:39 in the half after missing 3 point blank shots and a layup. Sabrina was much better in the 2nd half hitting 4 of 7 shots but she only grabbed 1 rebound in the 2nd half after grabbing 5 in the 1st half. Carla and Seraphine for the most part were pretty good and they played 36 and 33 minutes respectively. Carla for one really plays hard. Cesaria looked surprisingly good to me considering how long she has been out. She must have been able to do some cardio work as she looked pretty good in her 21 minutes. I guess we'll see how she feels tomorrow. Raven was probably the one player of the 7 player rotation who struggled. I really like Raven's motor. She can be effective on defense and her rebounding is usually very good but she is not a very skilled offensive player.

Against more traditional lineups Trajata and Asia perhaps get a few more minutes.

Creighton's 18 made threes was a new school record. I did not think the Shockers defended the 3-point line particularly well but Creighton is quite good and a but unconventional in the way the spread the floor and look for the 3 point shots. Plus I don't know when the suspensions occurred so who knows how much time the coaches had to put in an adjusted game plan.

With 1:30 remaining in the 1st half Creighton had extended their lead to 17 points. HCKA had to be pretty pleased how the Shocks battle back to tie the game at 57 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

It was still a 5-point game with CU leading at 72-67 with 4:51 to play but a couple of CU free throws and 2 key 3-pointers went unanswered by the Shocks and CU extended their lead to 80-67 with 1:30 left in the game and that sealed the deal. Perhaps the Shocks ran out of gas a little bit down the stretch but could be CU just had too many weapons today.

Hopefully, the suspended players will return to good graces chastened and well motivated. If not, with the semester coming to an end this would be a good time to move on to a place more to their liking.

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HCKA briefly discussed the suspensions on her Monday radio show.. Sounds like all 5 players were back ate r practice today. While HCKA did not specifically say what happened she did say they do have a curfew on the night before games and that Saturday morning they had to adjust their game plan. Sounded to me like these ladies violated curfew on Friday night.

When asked if she was ready for the Schoolhouse Rocks game tomorrow HCKA said that she had her plan. She would take 2 Tylenols prophylactically before the game

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Grambling State came into the game shooting 32.0% from the field including 27.3% from behind the arc. So far today GSU is shooting 52.2% from the field including 4-11 (36.4%) from 3. However, all for of their 3 point makes have been by Jazmine Boyd who is 4-6. Seems like an obvious defensive adjustment needs to be made there. Grambling State has turned the ball over 3 times.

The Shocks are only shooting 38.7% from the field including only 1-6 from behind the arc.

GSU has turned the ball over 15 times to only 7 for the Shocks but the Shocks are being out rebounded 18-12 by a team that is not known for that. The disparity is shooting accuracy has something to do with that. Seems like most of the turnover advantage has turned into rebounds for GSU.

Raven and Carla leading the way for the Shocks with 8 points each. Raven has been very efficient hitting 2-2 from the field and a surprising 4-4 from the line, however, Raven picked up a T on a mild skirmish with 12 seconds left in the half which was her 3rd fould. Carla is 4-9 from the field. Serpahine is onlu 1-5 with her only make a trey but she has 6 assists and no turnovers.

Shocks need to turn it on in the 2nd half.

Raven picks up her 4th foul 19 seconds into the 2nd half.

Sabrina has only played 10 minutes and has not started the 2nd half. She has no fouls. She is sitting on the far end of the bench with her warm up jersey on.
Not sure what the deal is with her. Injury? Illness?

Denning Goering said he thought he noticed Sabrina limping a little in the 1st half and apparently she is done for the day. Hopefully, nothing too serious.

Shocks play the majority of the 3rd quarter with 5 freshman on he floor. A Carla 3-pointer with 19 seconds in the quarter put the Shocks up 53-47 at the end of 3 quarters.

Shocks open up the 4th quarter on an 8-0 run on a Shyia jumper, a Carla trey and a kick out from Cesaria to Jaida for another trey. Shocks lead 61-46. Ces plus 4 freshman (Seraphine, Carla, Jaida and Shyia) starting the 4th quarter for the Shockers.

Shocks finish off Grambling 70-61. Some good things. Some not so good things. Surprisingly, and one of the good things, was the Shocks hitting 24-30 free throws including 6-6 from Raven. Shocks still tend to force things when they aren't really there.

Alyssia was unable to follow up on her big game against Creighton as she only scored 3 points on 1-5 from the field and 1-2 from the line in 14 minutes

Of the 5 players suspended for the Creighton game Jaida played 27 minutes, Dawnyel played 9 minutes, Jada Peacock played 1 minuite and the two Juco transfers, Maya and Ashely, did not play at all. Everyone was suited up.

HCKA said Sabrina was dinged up and couldn't go in he 2nd half but provided no details. Seraphine left the game late an thumbnail injury.

I would say at this point the Shocks biggest problem is a lack of BBIQ and knowing when they have a play and when they don't.

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Sabrina was fouled pretty hard on a breakaway layup attempt , and it took her longer than typical to get back up. As she went back to the bench while the refs reviewed something or the other, I noticed the limp for the first time. Maybe she came down wrong when she was fouled.

Jaida played inside for much of her time on the court as a small forward. Sabrina was out and someone (Raven?) was in some foul trouble to give Jaida that time on the inside. This was the first game when I thought, Okay, now I see what they saw in her when they recruited her.

I should say that this is not surprising. It will take awhile for the game to slow down for the freshmen. Maybe it is starting to happen for Shyia and Jaida. (I don't count Seraphine and Carla - their experience is different that most HS freshmen.)

Unfortunately, I think Alyssia was back to her normal game in this one.

Missed too many bunnies again.

"Shocks still tend to force things when they aren't really there." "... the Shocks biggest problem is a lack of BB IQ and knowing when they have a play and when they don't." Roger on that. Dawnyel was especially out of control I thought.

Bit of a chippy game - two double technicals were called.

This is the second game this year when we had a national-level referee as part of the crew. Bryan Enterline (he always looks like he is bored out of his mind and really doesn't want to be there) was here today, and Cameron Inouye was here recently.